'cape cod' on Serious Eats

When done right, clam chowder should be rich and filling, but not sludgy or stew-like. But what is the best way to cook chowder? Can the dump-and-simmer method be improved upon by some modern technique? I decided to break it down element by element and figure out how to make the platonic ideal of my childhood Cape Cod memories. More

Talk about good bread in Boston and only a few names come to mind. Iggy's. Sel de la Terre. Pain D'Avignon. The latter recently celebrated its 20th anniversary and has launched a brand new "bread of the month" club, a mail-order service that delivers fresh bread via 2-day delivery direct to your door. The Cape-based bakery focuses on European-style crusty, flavorful, open-holed loaves in a variety of flavors. We recently received a sample of five of their breads to taste. Check out the slideshow for our thoughts. More

Pain D'Avignon just celebrated its 20th year of supplying breads to restaurants and retail outlets up and down the Cape and throughout greater New England. They currently produce 2.8 million pounds of bread each year from their Hyannis bakery. Take a tour of the bakery with us, where nearly all of the breads are still shaped and baked by hand. More

Cape Cod's Dark Russets are some of my favorite chips that exist in the world of chips—anyone else? So I am always curious to see what Cape Cod is up to. They just came out with some new flavors that are pretty darn good. More

Yeah, you read that right. According to the Cape Cod Times, Urology Associates of Cape Cod are offering a free pizza (from Surf's Up Pizza & Seafood in Sandwich) with each vasectomy. This is one time where you can get a whole pie in one slice (ba dum dum)! More

Even though most of the people who travel there come from Boston, New York, and other cities with sophisticated food scenes, for whatever reason, most seem perfectly happy settling for not-so-great food. Spiritus Pizza, located in the heart of downtown on Commercial Street, is an exception, having served up its thin-crust pies since 1971. More

All summer Will Gilson, chef at Cambridge's Garden at the Cellar (one of my favorites in the neighborhood) is cooking at a pop-up restaurant at Adrian's out in North Truro, Massachusetts. That's special enough on its own, but if you get there on August 19, you're in for an extra special treat as our buddies at the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck will be by, serving their signature creations from 1 p.m. until they run out out of a pop-up Ice Cream Shoppe. More

I've said this before: The vast majority of Greek pizza is not worth eating. This describes basically all of the Greek pizza I ate in Boston during college. But it doesn't have to be that way, and George's Pizza House, a 42-year institution in Harwich easily proves it. More

Wanna see what it's like to spend a day in the shoes of a Serious Eater? Here's a play-by-play of each and every bite that myself, an old college friend, a three and a half-month-old puppy named Hambone, and Slice Queen Meredith Smith ate during 40 hours of research on Cape Cod. More

Snaking down Route 6 on the Cape, there is the ever-present danger that traffic will slow to a crawl. Luckily there are all manner of food shacks, ice cream stands, and souvenir shops that offer reprieve from the traffic. If it's a slice you're after, then Savory & Sweet Escape in North Truro (just south of Provincetown) will make from a supremely satisfying pit stop.
More

There are any number of places on Cape Cod to get a lobster roll, but you really can't beat the fishing pier for freshness. The characteristically grey, shingled Chatham Fish and Lobster is just a few steps away from where the fishing boats dock with their catch each day; it's a fish market first and foremost, with huge tanks of lobsters and enticing displays of littlenecks and oysters and cod. But the prepared foods are why a casual visitor should stop by. More

Or, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Cranberries But Were Afraid to Ask. [Flickr: clarkbw] Adrienne sporting her waders in the bog. Name: Adrienne Kravitz Profession: Cranberry farmer Location: Our farm is in Southeastern Massachusetts spread out over a few towns—Bridgewater, Middleboro, East Bridgewater and Hanson. How many acres? 150 acres this year How exactly do bogs work? Beyond knowing that cranberries don't grow on trees, my knowledge is pretty limited. Cranberries grow on long-running vines in sandy bogs and marshes, usually near wetlands. Since they are perennials, they return year after year. In the spring the vine blossoms which matures and ripens over the summer. During the harvest—typically at the end of September through early November, so right... More

Note: On Mondays, one of our various Market Scene correspondents checks in with what's fresh at farmstands, what's coming up, and what you better get while the gettin's good. This week, we hear from Boston correspondent Penny Cherubino of BostonZest. Take us to the market, Penny! [Photographs: Penny and Ed Cherubino] Provincetown Farmers' Market Ryder Street parking lot, Provincetown MA 02657 (next to town hall; map) Hours: Open Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. through December 5. In 2007, Andy Pollock from Silverbrook Farm organized a farmers' market in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Over the years, this town at lands end, on the tip of Cape Cod, has served as a haven for fishermen, artists, writers, and the gay community. Today... More

Photograph from This Is Why You're Fat The Hurler Burger, invented by Bob Phillips of Cape Cod, is an appropriate name for this burger made of a jelly doughnut stuffed with a canned cheese-topped patty. "I could finish this,"... More

"There was a little something in that burger—the seasoning of salt air? A stray grain of sand? Or just the memory of burgers past?—that I’ve never tasted anywhere else." Proust was right—nothing brings back childhood memories like a bite from... More

Everyone has, or at least needs, at least one truly local favorite joint in their lives, a go-to place for real, honest food served in a straightforward setting. I have a bunch of them in New York City, and I live and long to discover them elsewhere. Sometimes all it takes to discover a local favorite is friends who live in proximity to one of these gems. Our friends Tom and Vicky Kaiser have a house in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, a shore town an hour or so from Boston that's just north of New Bedford, and they turned me on to the Oxford Creamery, a truly undiscovered and unhyped local fave. Just how under the radar is the Oxford Creamery? Jane... More